A Great Big Kiss

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MiqzGNPY43E

I wish I were a girl group singer.

Kiss Me Kate

I have three songs in this show where I'm not safely ensconced in the ensemble-Another Opening, Another Show, Cantiamo D'Amore, and From This Moment On. The first song starts the show; I don't have any actual solo lines, but I'll be one of only a few voices for a few measures, and a goof at the beginning of the show could really mar the production. In Cantiamo D'Amore I've gotta make like an operetta singer as part of a trio; the other two guys are the real operetta deal, and at least one of them is cuter than me by a wide margin (haven't met the other guy yet.) The last song is a duet (I almost typed "duel!") with the lovely and talented leading lady, Michelle B., who awes me yet spurs me on to do my best singing for just that very reason. Everyone's doing fine work, and I think this is gonna be a show to take great pride in, but the challenge of doing all this singing is new to me.

Quick, Fragmented Update

"Fragments are the only forms I trust." -Donald Bartleme

Kiss Me Kate is at the center of my world now; I've bought several soundtracks of the show and I listen to them all day at work, occasionally breaking for other Cole Porter albums.

Easter was a joy-got to see my family and sing the Hallelujah Chorus as an auxilary member of the church choir. I even liked the preacher's sermon, so having panned him in a previous post I gotta give him props this time.

Did I mention Kiss Me Kate? We started doing choreography today. Since I am to dancing what The Administration is to slam dunks, they aren't hinging any showstoppers on my fancy footwork.

Having recently finished and adored the novel Bastard Out of Carolina, I am now reading Trash by the same author, Dorothy Allison.

I've noticed that Presbyterians are much better at responsive readings than Unitarians. Make of that what you will.

Casting about

Although we need days off from rehearsal so we can, y'know, do laundry or whatever, I enjoy rehearsal nights way more than off nights. It's interesting to do a show with such a large cast. I usually do little chamber shows with four or five people. A large cast feels like a small town, or a church, all coming together. My usual plays feel more like a tenement or a tiny wacko cult.

The Triumphant Return

I'm back online from the comfort and danger of my apartment, but I'm too sleepy for extensive posting. I'm sleepy because I'm working on the forthcoming local production of Kiss Me Kate while acting in a friend's movie. I gotta be at a comic book store at 5:30 AM tomorrow to deliver a line about Wolverine. Such is life.

This production of Kiss Me Kate is jam packed with cool people and relearning how to sing has been a joy. There's no sensation in my life like the sensation of really singing full out and knowing that it was good, or close to good.

As soon as I figure this Apple stuff out (I've only ever known PCs) I'll post a few relevant links. Kisses!

Inherit My Wind

Notes I would have given the director of the production of Inherit The Wind that I saw this weekend, had the director asked:

Brady, the prosecuting attorney, didn't get where he is simply by being loud and pious. He got there by knowing how to assure roomsful of people that he loves them with a Godly love. He got there by being charming. He got there by knowing how to crack jokes on the fly. Right now it seems like the community loves him because the script says so. Lets see him earn that love; this actor can do that as long as he's aware that that's the task at hand. Right now he just seems loud and pious. Have you ever talked to a good evangelical preacher? When they aren't preaching they're soft-spoken, friendly, earnest, humorous. Let's see that side of Brady; he should only preach when it's time to preach.

The H. L. Mencken character, the snarky reporter, doesn't seem to be aware that there are other people around when he makes his harsh, witty but mean-spirited comments. What does he want from the people around him? My answer would be that he wants to humble them with his witty insight into what's wrong with them; he wants them to know he's the smartest person in the room and that they're mere chimps next to him. That's not The One Right Answer, but it's one way for him to play off of other people, and it makes his humbling final scene that much more powerful. Right now the actor is just declaiming his lines into the air; he needs to be saying them to people around him, and paying close attention to the effect his words have on those people.

The Prayer meeting is one of the most effective scenes in the production. We really see the Flannery O'Connoresque paganism bubbling up under the cover of Christianity here. I'm still not sure that the fragmentation in the town preacher's relationship with his daughter has been established enough for the shocking development here to seem quite real. The actor playing the preacher is excellent, but right now I'm not sure why he makes the awful choice he makes here. (EDIT: "...Awful chioce he makes here." refers to the awful choice the character makes, not any of the performer's acting choices. The actor in question did a splendid job, plus he's a chum and I don't want him body-slamming me if he reads this.)

No one goes to the theatre to see people who know their lines, cues and blocking. People go to the theatre to see people talking to each other and trying to accomplish something with their lives in the face of great difficulty. Some of the performers here, notably the defense attorney, know that; make sure everyone else knows it too.

I promise this is my last post about this.

I realized late last night that I actually like Van Til's personal testimony a lot, and that kind of testimony is persuasive in a way that "rational argument" can never be. I think his instincts are right that personal testimony should be key to evangelism. I'm only annoyed that some people seem to want to take the leap out of the leap of faith.